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LC 6001 
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The 

International Correspondence 

Schools 
As a National Asset 



A Critical Examination of the Industrial 
and Economical Crisis of the Past 
Twenty Years and How the I. C. S. 
Have Met the Demands of the Period 

BY 

Rev. JOSEPH H. ODELL, D.D. 



An Address Delivered at the Twentieth Anniversary 
Banquet of the International Correspondence Schools 
Scranton, Pennsylvania, October Sixteenth, 1911 



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International Correspondence 
Schools as a National Asset 



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^HE only explanation or excuse that I can offer for 
my temerity in speaking to you tonight is an 
ineradicable respect — almost reverence — for every- 
thing educational. Outside of the sacred claims of religion 
a minister of the Gospel finds no cause that enlists his 
entire nature to such an extent as do educational agencies 
and institutions. Personally, I find myself unable to 
separate religion and education, because it seems impos- 
sible to awaken the human intellect without enlarging the 
sphere of conscience, and equally impossible to stir the 
conscience without causing a new mental activity. I trust 
this apology will be considered sufficient. 

I confess that it is an honor to participate in the Twen- 
Time ^^^^^ Anniversary of the International Correspondence 
Schools. Any institution that has stood the stress and 
storm of the past two decades is worthy of a celebration, 
and any corporation that has escaped governmental dis- 
solution during the same period must be destined for 
immortality. 

Twenty years! Compared with the span of a planet it 
is nothing, but as a venture in these searching and testing 
days it is surely a vindication of the purpose and method 
of education by correspondence. If the institution had 
been defective in principle, oi- deficient in accomplishment 
it would have been conderhhed and discarded long ago. 

When President Foster asked me to speak at the cele- 
bration I naturally ran my mind back over the past 
twenty years and tried to grasp the salient features of the 
period in order to see what conditions there were in the 
state of society that made an opportunity for such a unique 
enterprise as this. 






The first feature upon which I fastened was a deepening 
feeling of discontent among the working classes of the 
country. I know, of course, that this condition is no 
novelty. All along the line of history one meets it. 
But during the past twenty years it has become 
chronic, articulate, insistent, and organized. It has 
become intelligent. Now an intelligent discontent is 
something new. Men are not ready to bear the ills they 
have because they are afraid to fly to others that they 
know not of. 

It is said that once upon a time afflicted mortals made 
the life of the gods miserable with their complaints. They 
gathered on the slopes of Mount Olympus and wailed so 
bitterly that the festivities upon the summit were inter- 
rupted. Whereupon the deities left their nectar and 
ambrosia for a moment and listened to the disturbers. 
One man had boils and was denied repose : one had a scold- 
ing wife who nagged him to distraction; one had to carry 
wood until his shoulders bled; one had cattle that always 
strayed away; another was deaf; another lame so that he 
could move only with crutches; another was poor and 
hungry; another was oppressed by his master. So it went 
through himdreds of stories. The gods replied that it was 
always the lot of mortals to have some ill just to remind 
them that they were mortal. But if it would please them 
to exchange their misfortunes for those they thought 
themselves better able to bear they might throw them all 
in a heap and each take which suited him best. It was 
done and every man went away content that he had 
selected a trouble less burdensome than the last. But 
within a week the gods were disturbed by a noise a thousand 
times worse than they had ever heard before. Every voice 
was louder and more urgent. It was the same crowd but 
angry and maddened beyond belief. "Give me back my 
crutches," said the one who had chosen deafness. "I 
woiild rather chase my cattle all day than be poor and 
hungry," said another. "For heaven's sake give me 
back my boils," yelled another, "they are a million 
times easier to bear than a nagging wife." And at length 
the gods acceded to their requests and peace reigned once 
more upon' the earth. 

3 



Social Discon- 
tent Has 
Become 
Intelligent 



Workers Claim- 
ing Their 
Inalienable 
Rights 



The High Cost 
of Living 



Social 
Ambition 



The Verdict of 
Psychology 



That fable may illustrate the earlier attitude toward the 
ills of life. But it is not the attitude of today. The dis- 
content is not with the kind of ills but a resentment that 
there are any ills at all. That they are unnecessary, they 
are removable. Hence, I call it an intelligent discon- 
tent. To put it in another way, men are really insisting 
upon their inalienable rights. Democracy has promised 
those rights and has made provision for those rights, 
and there are millions who are bent upon inheriting 
their own. 

Perhaps one may gain something by looking at a few of 
the causes underlying the restlessness. First, I think 
there is the high cost of living. It might lead to contro- 
versy if I were to discuss the reasons for the rise of prices 
but I firmly believe that the chief one is far beyond our 
control, being the increased production of gold with the con- 
sequent cheapening of its purchasing power. Bradstreefs 
declares that "in the past 13 years (1896-1910) the cost 
of living has increased more than 61 per cent." Pro- 
fessor Irving Fisher, of Yale, makes the statement that 
"statistics show that general prices have risen about 50 per 
cent, in 10 years and that the cost of living has risen about 
as much." I believe that during the life of these Corre- 
spondence Schools the cost of living has risen 75 per cent. 
The effect of this upon the average man has been to cause 
him to cast about for the means of increasing his income, 
simply to keep his head above water. 

The second cause of the general discontent is the family 
and social ambition which democracy stimulates in men. 
Every one knows today that many of our millionaires were 
once wage earners on a very small scale, and are now able 
to give their wives and children all of the advantages of 
artistic and cultured surroundings, the best education of 
school and university and the pleasure and profit of foreign 
travel. Millions of men care little for such things for 
themselves, but it eats like iron into their souls that they 
cannot give to their own dear ones what other men give 
to theirs. 

The third feature I must notice, and perhaps the most 
important, is the consciousness which men have of unutil- 
ized capacity. During the last twenty years psychology has 



grown into a recognized science, driven its X-rays deep into 
the recesses of human personality, and man has come to 
his own. Never again can the race sink into pessimism 
or accept any self-estimate other than the highest. 

Do you remember how Walt Whitman went astray on 
the subject when he wrote: 

"I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid 

and self-contained, 

I stand and look at them long and long. 

They do not sweat and whine about their condition. 

They do not lie awake at night and weep for their sins. 

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, 

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania for 

owning things. 

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands 

of years ago. 

Not one is respectable or tmhappy over the whole earth." 

All of which is true about the animals but Whitman 
might have continued: (I offer the lines with apologies to 
the poets present.) 

Not one has built a Parthenon or carved a Venus de Milo; 
Not one has composed a Messiah or written a Paradise Lost; 
■ Not one has made a Republic or fashioned a Constitution; 
Not one has thought of Freedom or died on the altar of love; 
Or founded an I. C. S. to ease the terrible toilers 
And give them the rights for which nature endowed them. 



Now this sense of capacity has been emphasized by the 
opportunities involved in the economical and industrial 
revolution which has taken place during the last twenty 
years. Practically every industry in the land has been put 
in the melting pot and has come out as something new. The 
discovery or development of natural resources has created 
a thousand entirely new occupations. Things and enter- 
prises that were timid experiments when Mr. Foster enrolled 
his first student are among the greatest and most firmly 
established industries of the country It has been a period 
of evolution and revolution such as the world never 
witnessed before. Changes came so rapidly and with 
such strange and exorbitant demands that the great body 
of workers were either paralyzed by despair or driven 
into a state of panic. The everlasting invention of new 
machinery and labor-saving devices threw thousands of 
men out of employment every month. Then came the 
efficiency tests which rooted up thousands of others and 

6 



The Industrial 
Revolution 
of the Past 
Twenty Years 



now threatens to eliminate countless more. Twenty years 
ago practically every public question was purely political, 
dealing with the rights of individuals and states ; now almost 
every subject before the people is industrial or economic 
— the problems of production and distribution. The 
cities have grown enormously and at the expense of the 
country. In 1890, 22.2 per cent of the population were in 
cities of more than 25,000; in 1910, 40 per cent. This 
trend has had a tendency to leave the less aggressive and 

The Problem of ^^^^ efficient upon the farms. 

the Immigrants In the twenty years the population has increased about 
33 per cent., jumping from 62,000,000 to 92,000,000— 
this gain being equal to the entire population of the country 
in 1860. In the two decades about 13,000,000 immigrants 
have landed on our shores. This raises a problem far too 
vast for me to do anything but state. In the decade 
immediately preceding the foundation of the I. C. S. 
(1881-1890) 66 per cent, of these immigrants were from 
Northern Europe and only 19 per cent, from Southern 
Europe. With other things that condition has entirely 
changed. During the last decade (1901-1910) only 16 per 
cent, came from Northern Europe, and 64 per cent, from 
Southern Europe. Which means that the country has 
been shipping swarms of uneducated, ill-equipped and 
untrained laborers. 

During the life time of the Schools the development of the 
industries calling for technically trained and scientifically 
educated men has been so enormous that I hardly dare to 
sketch their progress. Practically every electric railway 
has been built since 1890 and electricity for general power 
and lighting purposes has come to the front during the 
same period. The steam railroad mileage jumped from 
166,703 in 1890 to 239,991 in 1910. In 1910 the produc- 
tion of coal was more than three times as great as it was 
in 1890 and the consumption per capita more than doubled. 
Before 1890 there was no manufacture of tin plate; today 
it is one of our most floiirishing industries. The manu- 
facture of steel has quadrupled, so has the output of oil 
and its by-products. Every manufacturing establishment 
existing in 1890 has had to be multiplied by four in order 
to meet the demands of today. Take the manufacture of 

6 



copper alone (caused by its use for electrical purposes). 
There were 250,000,000 pounds of copper worked into 
various forms in 1890; last year there were 1,500,000,000 
pounds. 

However interesting these figures may be in themselves 
they are important to us as indicating the almost incom- 
prehensible change that has passed over the country dur- 
ing the last twenty years, creating inevitably a demand for 
entirely new types of workmen, men who were flexible 
enough to meet the new conditions and opportunities. 
There has been an emergency call for millions of men to 
do things which men had never done before. The country 
has been in need of an army of trained workers just as 
truly as the country was in need of an army of disciplined 
fighters in 1861. 

Where was the supply to come from? For generations 
the colleges had been grinding out graduates with prac- 
tically the same ctdture that they gave centuries before — 
a broad, enobling and enriching culture of the mind in 
languages and literature. They heard the demand and 
girded themselves to meet the new opportunity. But they 
were hampered by tradition and limited in equipment. 
Yet in spite of everything they have done nobly in adding 
scientific and engineering courses and in creating branches 
of technology. But these institutions could care for only 
the boys, shaping them for future careers. What could 
be done for the millions of workers already occupied and 
encumbered and unable to give three or four years to 
expensive study? Many of these could be remolded and 
shaped to meet the new demand; they could be made 
effective, if only enough scientific knowledge could be 
added to their practical experience to fit them for the new 
reqtiirements. 

At this point the International Correspondence Schools 
sprang into existence and with a courage and foresight 
and determination tmknown hitherto in the educational 
world proceeded to supply just what the cotmtry needed 
most. It is comparatively easy to say what was required: 
Architects for the btiilding of homes and factories; elec- 
tricians of various grades and orders to tame and harness 
the new power to industrial use; foremen to organize and 



An Emergency 
Call for Millions 
of Trained Men 



Why the Supply 
Fell Short of 
the Demand 



The I. C. S. 
as the Saviour 
of Industrial 
America 



How the I. C. S. 

Justifies Its 
Claims 



23,364 Grateful 

Students Give 

Voluntary 

Testimony 



direct the vast army of laborers; draftsmen to design the 
machinery for the manufacturing and power-producing 
plants; engineers with the creative ability to meet unex- 
pected demands; proprietors who could start and develop 
enterprises and industries for turning raw material into 
a myriad useful products; superintendents with the 
knowledge of organization and the courage for expan- 
sion. 

This is a tremendous demand and until last week I was 
not quite sure that the International Correspondence 
Schools had really risen to the occasion. I asked for 
evidence. "No vague, general statements," I said, "but 
genuine testimony, such as would be valid in a court 
of law." 

I thought that perhaps they would give me a few dozen 
striking instances and was entirely unprepared for the 
avalanche of evidence that swept down upon me. Lord 
Derby, the great British statesman once said that "every 
institution must justify its claim to existence year by year 
by its fruits. " If you want an occupation that will keep 
you busy day and night for months go down to the Schools 
and ask them to justify their claim to existence by Lord 
Derby's dictum. I assure you it will not be a dreary 
occupation either. You will get the life-story of men by 
the thousands who have fought their way up from penury 
and cramping conditions to positions of wealth and honor 
and power. The letters will bring tears to your eyes and 
a quickening beat to your pulse as you read of their sacri- 
fice and heroism and achievement. Between the lines 
you will see beautiful homes, happy wives, children with 
a fair chance in life and all of the conditions that make 
for virtue and good citizenship. I wish I were able to 
give you some adequate idea of what this mass of testimony 
means to the nation and to humanity. 

Well, to go back to the question of evidence. As I said, 
it came as an avalanche. The first thing the Schools did 
was to give me the records of 23,364 students who have 
voluntarily written their life-story, telling how they owe 
almost everything to the I. C. S. instruction. Let me 
pause for a moment while the facts sink in: 23,364 have 
voluntarily written letters of gratitude, frankly saying 



that the I. C. S. have transformed for them the world in 
which they live. The overwhelming majority of them 
were in lowly and disadvantageous circumstances, crippled 
by lack of early education and with nothing but a pre- 
carious future before them filled with uninspiring toil and 
scant remuneration. 

Of course there are thousands who have not had the 
gratitude to report at all; and there are hundreds of 
students for whom we cannot but feel the contempt that 
snobs always merit. By the means of the I. C. S. instruc- 
tion they have risen to affluence and social position and 
now they wish people to believe that they were bom to the 
purple. Then there are those whose service under 
corporate control makes it impossible for them to report 
their advancement without violating rules laid down by 
their employers. Still others feel that genuine modesty 
which is unwilling even to count its accomplishments lest 
it should seem to boast. But putting these aside, we have 
an army of 23,364 enthusiastic volunteers pressing upon 
our notice. 

Of these 1,026 are architects. They have designed every How 
kind of buildings from cottages to skyscrapers. But the Architects 
thing that interests me chiefly is what they were before. 
I find they were following these different occupations: 

Carpenters 235 Office boys 6 

Draftsmen 102 Bookkeepers 5 

Apprentices 67 Bricklayers 5 

Contractors 18 Laborers 5 

Clerks 14 Painters 4 

Foremen 12 Masons 4 

And the rest from forty other occupations. 

For instance, one was a German barber who began to 
study at the age of 23 and is now in charge of the Drafting 
Department of the Consolidated Gas and Electric Light 
and Power Company, of Baltimore, Md. Barbering seems 
to me a peculiarly unimaginative employment and for a 
man to develop creative genius after years of such an 
occupation is certainly worthy of notice. Perhaps you 
all remember that Sir Richard Arkwright, who revolution- 
ized the cotton industry, was also a barber. 

Here is another interesting case. A carpenter in 
Brooklyn, a native of Sweden, was earning $12 per week 



Are Made 



when he enrolled in the Architectural Course. He was 
30 years old at the time. His letter of February 28, 1911, 
informs me that he has drawn plans for 174 good class 
buildings in and around Greater New York and he is at 
present engaged upon a 48-family apartment house in 
Brooklyn — one of the largest in the city, and he also has 
other constructions under way aggregating more than 
half a million dollars. He superintends the construction 
beside drawing the plans. This is a remarkable showing 
considering that only 7 years ago Mr. Ericson received his 
Making ^^^* lesson papers. 
Electricians Among those volunteers I find 1,520 electricians, of 
whom 376 have become chief electricians and 163 elec- 
trical engineers. I find one who was a cow-puncher in 
California who is now the chief electrician for the Western 
Pacific Railway; another who was a lamp-trimmer and 
has become instructor in electrical equipment and con- 
struction in the Carnegie Technical School, Pittsburg, and 
another who was driving a mule in the mines and has 
become superintendent for the Bessemer Coke Company 
at the Griffin plants, which were constructed under his 
supervision and are the largest coke ovens of that company, 
being electrically driven. Here is a case which has pathos 
and heroism in a marked degree: Paul J. M. Loewe was 
born in France. At 6 years of age he was earning his own 
living and at 16 was supporting a widowed mother and six 
other children. He struggled along working by day and 
attending night school in the evening. At the age of 32 he 
was getting only $12 per week and that was uncertain. 
He then took a Course with the Correspondence Schools in 
Electrical Engineering and has now risen to the position 
of Vice-President and General Manager of the Moberly Gas 
and Electric Company. 

When I tujrn to the stories of men who have become 
chief engineers I am bewildered with the romance woven 
into the individual cases. My eye runs over the records 
of over 600 chief engineers and instance after instance 
would inspire Jack London to some of his most vivid 
writing. They began as firemen, laborers, machinists, 
farmers, clerks, blacksmiths, night watchmen, teamsters, 
and occupations of which I had never heard before. 

10 



In 1902 R. L. Thomas, of Eureka, CaL, at the age of 24, 
was running an old hand-propelled ferry boat across the 
Eel River in a rain storm. One of the passengers was a 
representative of the I. C. S., who spoke to the ferryman 
about the school that taught by mail. We will let Mr. 
Thomas tell the story in his own words: "This interested 
me, but I had no time to talk, as ferry boats in high water 
need attention, and the deck of a boat in a winter storm 
is not a convenient place to show literature. He took my 
name and said he would send information, I only men- 
tion this because, in 1908, while Deputy Surveyor for 
Hvmiboldt County, Cal., I drew the plans, got out the stress 
sheets and bills of material, and made the cost estimate 
for the steel bridge that now spans the river at that same 
place where the water-soaked, half -frozen and thoroughly 
miserable man, yelled at me, with chattering teeth through 
the cutting wind and blinding rain, that there was a school 
that taught things by mail." He enrolled. But he had a 
job that kept him busy from 2:30 a. m. -until 11 p. m., 
which he left for another which would give him more time 
for study. Here he had to work for only 11 hours a day 
and walk 3 miles on his own time. Still he made some 
progress in his Course. He says that what discouraged 
him most were the pictures in the I. C. S. literature depict- 
ing a student sitting in a room by a table, with a lighted 
lamp, because all of his study had to be done lying on the 
ground aided only by the light of a flickering candle 
shielded from the wind by a poncho thrown over a sage 
brush. Mr. Thomas is now City Engineer of Eureka, Cal. 

Then I hold records of a clerk who studied engineering 
with the Schools and has since invented and patented and 
manufactured electrical pumps, vertical gas and gasoline 
engines and special air-cooled engines for mining in arid 
regions; of a baker's assistant at $10 per month who 
through the Schools has become Chief Engineer for the 
Holyoke, Mass., Street Railway Company; of a Norwegian 
who knew hardly any English and learned of the I. C. S. 
through a post card picked up on the street, studied with 
the Schools and has become Erecting Engineer to the West- 
inghouse Company; of a motorman who began to study 
at the age of 38 and has since become the General Man- 



The Romantic 
Rise of the 
Ferryman 



I. C. S. Study 

Makes 

Inventors 



11 



The I. C. S. 

Supply the 

Country with 

General 

Superintendents 



ager of the Yukon and California Mining Company, doing 
pioneer work in Alaska; and numberless other cases which 
time forbids me even to mention. 

Out of these 23,364 voluntary witnesses I have the 
amazing record of 1,644 who have jumped into positions of 
great executive responsibility such as General Superin- 
tendents, Superintendents, and General Managers. Strong 
men such must needs be, well equipped, well poised, and 
with the capacity for leadership. Of all the officers of the 
tremendous industrial army they are the most difficult to 
produce. The I. C. S. have no greater honor than their 
success in this particular department. It is the process of 
self-education, the sacrifices the student must make to keep 
his evening study hours inviolate and the self-reliance which 
he develops in pursuing his work alone which ultimately 
qualify him for such a position of responsibility. 

These 1,644 Superintendents rose from the following 
occupations : 



Machinists 362 

Electricians 82 

Draftsmen 80 

Carpenters 60 

Laborers 54 



Engineers 46 

Clerks 35 

Miners 24 

Farmers 22 

Foremen 22 



The I. C. S. 

an Open Door 

to the Lowliest 

Worker 



And 21 were in the desolate ranks of the unemployed 
at the time they began to study with the I. C. S. Their 
triumph is the more remarkable of all. The remainder 
jumped up from 60 other subordinate occupations. 

For instance, I found three who were mule drivers. One 
of them, John Clapperton, the oldest of a family of nine 
children, went to work in the mines at 12 years of age 
and struggled along until he reached the hazardous occu- 
pation of mule driving, when he heard of the I. C. S. Not 
satisfied with taking the Complete Coal Mining Course he 
also took Mechanical Drawing, and you can find him any 
day at Minden, W. Va., the effective superintendent of 
the New River and Pocahontas Coal Company. Charles 
A. Sine, the present superintendent of the Johnston City 
Coal Company, 111., was also a mule driver when he got 
his first instruction papers from Scranton What chance 
had such boys in life apart from the helping hand these 
Schools could give them? Mr. Sine left the public schools 



12 



before he knew the multiplication table and was set to 
work in the mines at the age of 12. 

But we must leave the congenial subject of mules and 
turn to other cases. W. C. Calverley is well known in 
in the coal producing world as the General Superintendent 
of the Berwind-White Mining Company, having 10,000 
men in his employ. Look at the terrible disadvantages 
under which he started. He went into the bowels of the 
earth to work at 8 years of age and it was not until he 
had reached 33 that he heard of correspondence teaching. 
The only education he had when he began to study was 
a knowledge of how to read, knowing absolutely nothing 
of mathematics. Mr. Calverley gives the I. C. S. the 
entire credit for his phenominal progress and writes: 
"I have repeatedly said that with such a school as the 
I. C. S. and its system of teaching there is nothing to 
prevent most young men and young women acquiring an 
education that will enable them to get away from the life 
of drudgery that falls to the lot of illiterates in all countries." 

Just one other case interests me because of the pathos 
of the child labor and juvenile privation. John G. King, 
the superintendent of the important Elmira Cotton Mills 
Company, Burlington, N. C, was one of a family of ten 
children with a widowed mother. He was put into the 
mill when ten years old and toiled like a slave until the 
correspondence schools picked him up, taught him all that 
was necessary for efficiency and made him a master of men. 

I could continue to cite cases equally cogent and dramatic 
with practically no limit but I think I have already indi- 
cated and unfolded sufficient evidence to prove that the 
International Correspondence Schools have more than 
justified their "claim to existence year by year by their 
fruits." In fact I believe the evidence at my disposal is 
ample to support the statement that the International 
Correspondence Schools are a national asset which no 
historian of the progress of our country for the past twenty 
years dare leave out of account. 

Let me lay before you just one other set of figures. We 
must necessarily confine ourselves to the 23,364 voluntary 
witnesses because we do not feel at liberty to subpoena the 
tens of thousands of others. One out of ten of those 



The I. C. S. 
Undoing the 
Evils of 
Child-Labor 



The L C. S. the 
Best Friend of 
the Common 
Laborer 



13 



A Student 

47 Years Old 

Makes Good 



voltinteers were coniinon day laborers when they enrolled 
as students with the Schools; that is, 2,330 of them were 
earning a precarious livelihood in unskilled, untrained, and 
uninspiring toil; poorly paid, amid depressing conditions, 
and with no guarantees, or even hopes, of a better financial 
or social future. 

These day laborers have advanced to important positions 
as follows: 



Engineers 77 

Foremen 45 

Electricians 36 

Draftsmen 36 

Proprietors 33 

Clerks 32 

Chief Engineers 22 

Superintendents 20 

Managers 17 

Asst. Foremen 17 

Chief Draftsmen 15 

Inspectors 14 



Machinists 

Contractors 

Chief Electricians . . . 
U. S. Postal Clerks. 

Chemists 

Architects 

Civil Engineers 

Surveyors 

Vice-Presidents 

Factory Owners. . . . 
County Surveyors . . 



12 
11 
10 
6 
6 
5 
4 
4 
3 
2 
2 



That is the point of advancement they have reached up to 
date, but it is a serial story and every day sees some new ele- 
vation. Many of them have only just completed their Courses 
and there has not been time for them to come into their own. 

But there is quite enough in the record to demonstrate that 
this institution is playing the part of social and industrial 
redeemer for thousands of men whose lot is almost hopeless 
and helpless, and who would be submerged and lost but 
for the ladder the I. C. S. put under their sinking feet. 

A typical case is that of A. V. Riker, who was earning 
$50 a month when he enrolled. He had served his employ- 
ers faithfully and was often set to train younger men along 
the line of practical work. Presently he found that when 
a foreman or superintendent was to be appointed one of 
these younger men was sure to be chosen over his head. 
Then he would grow angry and quit the job, joining another 
gang. By the time he was 47 years old this had happened 
so often that he was in danger of becoming soured. Then 
it occurred to him that the reason why younger men were 
advanced while he remained behind was that they possessed 
what he did not — a technical education. Here the I. C. S. 
enters. He enrolled for an Electrical Course, and worked 
until he graduated. He is today Manager for a general 
contracting firm handling large and important enterprises. 



14 



Then there are the firemen, 1,603 in number, members 
of Kipling's "Black Tar Gang," without whose sweat and 
toil in smoke and grime the giant wheels of industry 
would never turn. These firemen have attained other 
positions as follows: 



Stationary Engineers. . 821 

Locomotive Engineers 262 

Chief Engineers 163 

Proprietors 53 

Electricians 35 

Managers 28 



Chief Electricians 20 

Foremen 12 

Machinists 4 

Civil Engineers 2 

Presidents 2 



While 183 have entered various other occupations. 

One of the most typical cases is that of Wiley W. Bailey, 
of Taylor, Texas. This man enrolled for a Steam-Electric 
Course in 1903. He studied awhile but grew discouraged 
when he reached higher mathematics. For 7 long years 
he bent his back in the ash pit and the coal hole. During 
those years Bailey's wages increased only $10 a month. 
Then another I. C. S. Representative found him and 
persuaded him to resume his studies. Within one year he 
had made such progress that when his firm added a planer 
mill, they increased his salary $100 a month and made him 
Chief Engineer and Inside Manager. His company has 
complimented him still further by naming the plant the 
Wiley Bailey Mill. Is it any wonder that this student is 
an enthusiastic witness for the Schools? 

Likewise, there are clerks, 1,500 strong, many of them 
the product of the Commercial Courses in our public 
schools. While it may be difficult for one to rise from the 
ranks of those occupying clerical positions, these men have 
demonstrated that with the help of the I. C. S. it is not 
impossible. They have entered a variety of occupations 
calling for trained intellects, as the following table will 
show: 



Proprietors 262 

Chief Clerks 227 

Managers 169 

Draftsmen 125 

Superintendents 66 

Secretaries 55 

Mechanical and Civil 

Engineers 18 

Electrical Engineers ... 8 

Auditors 6 



Electricians and Chief 

Electricians 45 

Treasurers 38 

Foremen 30 

Contractors 26 

General Managers 18 

Chief Engineers 5 

Chemists 5 

Teachers 5 

Presidents 2 



Leaving 350 scattered among various other occupations. 

15 



How Firemen 
Mount the 
I. C. 8. Ladder 
to Success 



The Story 
of the Clerks 



The Alma Mater 
of a million and 
a half Students 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



029 931 995 

One of these men whose letterhead shows that he is now 
a builder of artistic homes in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was a 
grocery clerk, in poor health, confined for long hours in a 
close store, trying to support a wife and child and look 
decent on $40 a month. He paid for his Course by working 
at night, while his wife carried water and split kindlings 
so that he should not be kept from studying during the 
scant time he spent at home. Finally he became a super- 
intendent, but he was not yet satisfied and last year he 
cleared about $12,000 as a Building Contractor. This 
student, J. F. Parker, ascribes his success to the deter- 
mination "to keep on going even when he was tired to 
death and sick of the whole business." 

I began by showing that the past twenty years have 
been a period of extraordinary ferment in our nation, with 
a thousand new industries springing into existence, and 
old ones expanding and ramifying in unexpected direc- 
tions. The larger part of the citizen body was unable to 
meet the sudden demands owing to lack of training. Our 
existing institutions of learning, at best, could train only 
the on-coming generation. Then it was that the Inter^ 
national Correspondencfe Schools did what was needed 
most: took the old workers and trained them for the new 
opportunity. The achievement is phenomenal. In the 
twenty years just past the Schools have aided, adapted, 
trained, or equipped no less than 1,315,000 men in 
America alone and have made them effective factors and 
forces in our national life. "^All honor to such an institu- 
tion! the first, the largest, the most successful, and the 
best of its kind in the world ! 

And all honor, a thousand-fold, to the man who has 
put his body, heart, and mind into the vast creative enter- 
prise and has guided and developed it to its present mag- 
nificent efficiency! 

When the graduates of our colleges speak affectionately 
of the institution from which they graduated they call it 
their Alma Mater. I suppose you all know that Alma 
Mater means — foster mother. How much more truly and 
literally may the million and a half students who have 
received the boon of education speak of the I. C. S. as 
their Alma Mater — their Foster Mother! 



258P— 19278-10-27-ll-20m 



16 



029 931 995 7( 



HoUinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



